Lakers primed to shoo Celtics, K.G. out of Finals

See the problem here?

It's about firepower. The Lakers have far more of it than Boston does. Los Angeles has quantum torpedoes and the Celtics comparably possess a pop gun.

"They're a great offensive basketball team," Rivers said of the Lakers. "The toughest we've played clearly in the playoffs. You know, Detroit poses problems, as well, but (the Lakers) are really good. They spread the floor, they have the best scorer on the planet, and with Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom posing problems with their size and quickness and their shooting that they put on the floor, it's a tough challenge for us defensively, there's no doubt about it."

Of course the Celtics can score points. They have The Big Three; Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen devastated the Eastern Conference in the regular season. In the postseason, the Celtics are 22-2 in the last 24 home opening playoff games.

But that's the East. The East was garbage. The East was a stinking corpse.

The Lakers beat Denver, Utah and San Antonio, which is a much sterner test than Boston's road of Atlanta, Cleveland and Detroit. It's not even close.

Los Angeles presents unique matchup problems because of Gasol and Odom. As Rivers stated, most teams spread the floor with ones, twos and threes. The Lakers use their fours and fives. Teams have difficulty guarding such tall, accurate shooters.

The Celtics aren't buying any of this. You wouldn't expect them to do so. They are trying to fool themselves into believing that they can play any style of basketball and keep pace with Los Angeles.

"If you look at our three series, or the last two, we played against two of the best defenses in all of basketball," said Pierce. "The way those two teams play (Cleveland and Detroit) really slows the game down. But I really think we've shown throughout the regular season, and in some cases throughout the Detroit series and the Atlanta series, that we still want to get up and down the court when we want to, score 100 points and get the ball moving and score. We feel we can pretty much play any style, whether we want to slow it down and grind it out or get out on the open court and run."

Good luck with that running part.

Don't forget your track gear. You'll need it.

The Celtics are going to be doing a lot of running, all right -- chasing Bryant all over the arena.

Meanwhile, Jackson is 41-0 all time when he wins the first game of a playoff series.

That's 41-0.

He's about to make it 42.

Despite Garnett's shiny new shoes.